Covid-19 coronavirus: British PM's office hits back at critics

Mounted police officers patrol along a deserted Regent Street in London, with Britain in lockdown. Photo / AP

The British Government is rejecting a newspaper report that Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his ministers were far too slow to respond to Covid-19.

The Sunday Times newspaper has been accused of "falsehoods" and "errors" by Downing Street after it published comments from a government source saying the Government "missed the boat" on protective health equipment and testing.

The Prime Minister was accused of taking a backseat role in shoring up the nation's pandemic defences, despite mounting concern from scientists over the accelerating health emergency in Wuhan.

It also emerged the Government shipped 260,000 items of personal protective equipment to China amid warnings from doctors that the UK was under-prepared to cope with a pandemic.

The Health Department issued a rebuttal saying: "This article contains a series of falsehoods and errors and actively misrepresents the enormous amount of work which was going on in government at the earliest stages of the coronavirus outbreak."

Boris Johnson skipped five Cobra meetings on the virus, calls to order protective gear were ignored and scientists’ warnings fell on deaf ears

Failings in February may have cost thousands of liveshttps://t.co/90fMvq20O5

— The Sunday Times (@thesundaytimes) April 18, 2020

The statement added: "This is an unprecedented global pandemic and we have taken the right steps at the right time to combat it, guided at all times by the best scientific advice.

"The Prime Minister has been at the helm of the response to this, providing leadership during this hugely challenging period for the whole nation."

Minister Michael Gove called the article "off beam" but confirmed Sunday Times reporting that Johnson missed five meetings of the key government crisis committee Cobra in late January and February. However, he said it was not unusual.

"He didn't. But then he wouldn't. Because most Cobra meetings don't have the Prime Minister attending them.

He added: "The idea that the Prime Minister skipped meetings that were vital to our response to the coronavirus, I think is grotesque.The Prime Minister took all the major decisions.

In Austria, new cases topped out three weeks ago and the current rate of infections is now 80% below the peak https://t.co/jnkUHzHJPn

— The Economist Data Team (@ECONdailycharts) April 19, 2020

"Nobody can say that the Prime Minister wasn't throwing heart and soul into fighting this virus. His leadership has been clear. He's been inspirational at times."

The health statement also said: "It is entirely normal and proper for Cobra to be chaired by the relevant secretary of state.

"At this point the World Health Organisation had not declared Covid-19 a public health emergency of international concern, and only did so only on January 30."

But Labour's health secretary Jonathan Ashworth told Sky News there were "serious questions" as to why Johnson skipped five Cobra meetings, "when the whole world could see how serious this was becoming".

"And we know that serious mistakes have been made, we know that our frontline NHS (National Health Service) staff don't have the PPE, that they've been told this weekend that they won't necessarily have the gowns which are vital to keep them safe.

"We know that our testing capacity is not at the level that is needed."

15 pages of obituaries in The Boston Globe today. pic.twitter.com/DdcWiy2hvx

— Nancy Palmer (@npalmerrothman) April 19, 2020

Britain has now has 121,172 cases of the coronavirus. Its country death toll of 16,095 is the fifth-highest of the pandemic.

The Government has previously been criticised for shortages of PPE and a slow introduction of restrictions.

Gove confirmed the Government shipped 260,000 items of PPE to China but said the PPE had not come from the UK's pandemic stockpile, and Beijing had since sent back "far more" than was dispatched to them.

The Financial Times reported that the Government had "muddled thinking" over its development of plans for a British ventilator.

Insiders said the procurement effort was plagued by disjointed thinking that sent off non-specialist manufacturers designing products that clinicians and regulators deemed unsuitable for treating Covid-19 patients.

- additional reporting news.com.au